It seems fitting to me that we are pondering “Time” just now as we move from one year to the next. I looked in the mirror on the first day of 2019 and thought, “this is my seventy second New Year’s Day,” and I could see, in my well-worn face and my white hair, all those years.

Time is much on my mind these days–not in a morbid “time is running out” kind of way, but with the  recognition, that comes with age, of how rapidly time spins out and how easily it can be squandered. I am focusing on realizing time, honoring time, really using time as opposed to floating on its tide as if it were endless. It has made me think about what I don’t want to do, as much as what I do want to do. It has also helped me to vow to visit the past only to enjoy good memories, not regrets, and to consider the future in only the most pragmatic terms and not as a wish for something better than today. There is a song, from the musical “Rent” that I love.

“There is no future

There is no past

I live this moment as my last

There’s only us

There’s only this

Forget regret

Or life is yours to miss

No other road

No other way

No day but today”

When the theme of Time was announced the first thing that came to me was the phrase “no day but today.” Time is a construct. Time is a gift or a threat, depending on how we choose to see it. The only time that is real is now. I am struggling to see a way to express this visually, but it is the most compelling time connection I feel right now. 

I wish you all a Happy New Year. May it be a time of personal contentment and of peace and fulfillment for all…